Gundam Seed: Twin Shades
by tsurugisan
Summary: This is my first fic, It is another sequel to the Seed episodes, set 7 years after the last battle. AU due to Seed Destiny. What happens when the hard earned peace is shattered as new characters emerge to change the flow of destiny. R


A/N: This is my first fic, EVER, so be nice. Thank you. Anywho, I present to you guys a Gundam Seed AU type fic, because of Gundam Seed Destiny. Please, sit back and enjoy. The story is set 7 years after the last battle at Junius 7.

"..."speech

'...'Thoughts

Legal Disclaimer: Familiar Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny elements featured in this fic belongs to some very creative guy whose name I am not familiar with, nevertheless, let it be known that aside from my own original concepts: They dont belong to me.

CMS productions along with Creativity inc, proudly presents...

Gundam Seed: Shield and Sword

CHAPTER I

Ezaria Joule let out a sigh of relief as she stepped out of the shuttle from Earth that had now

landed safely aboard a Nazca Class Zaft ship, the Helix.

"Everything okay, Mrs Joule?" Piped a voice behind her with a worried tone, as she gently floated down the zero gravity environment within the hangar. "You look a bit pale, are you feeling well?"

Ezaria turned to look over her shoulder as they both floated towards a passage exiting the hangar, and looked at the girl behind her.

She wore a green Zaft uniform and had long black, flowing hair up to her waist accenting her pale green eyes. Right now, they were shining with concern. Ezaria managed a small smile before replying.

"It's just probably the stress of the negotiations, Kirliani" she answered, "You can imagine all the fuss we went through during the treaty in Paris. Those 'gentlemen' wont let anything slide until you drive them face first to the ground..."

Kirliani replaced her gaze with a look of relief and returned the smile.

"Well, at least we're heading home to the Plants once more" she began, now in her usual cheerfulness, "It's just a different environment on earth... Nevertheless, you should get some rest, ma'am"

Ezaria merely nodded and smiled at the girl's comments as they now strided through the many corridors of the ship before replying.

"Please dear, we arent on official terms as of now, call me mom."

It had now been nearly 7 years to the date from the final major conflict between Earth and the Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty, commonly known as Zaft. Since then, she had had a hand at all the heavy negotiations being one of the remaining original council members of the organization. The stress had been mounting on her, but she had managed. Asides from all the hardships, good things have been happening as well. Her son, Yzak Joule, had found his true love in the girl beside her, Kirliani Signit, and they were to be married in a few months time. Coincidentally, the girl had also become a major military asset in Zaft, and was assigned the commander of one of the squads safeguarding the Zaft diplomats to, from and within Earth.

'The military...' Ezaria tiredly said in her head.

Even though peace had been ensued between the 2 powers, each side had still been developing Mobile weapons, under the excuse of security. Zaft itself had developed a powerful new line of mobile suits, the Zaku class, currently comprising of the Zaku Warrior, and a much more powerful version, the Zaku Phantom. And that was only what the military had informed her of. For all she knows, they maybe developing, or worst, may have already developed stronger weapons of war. The same could be said of Earth, since the end of the war, they had been busy trying to mass produce the 8 suits of the GAT-X prototype class, which were know termed to as Gundams. They had now managed, as far as common knowledge, to develop mass production counterparts of the Strike, Duel, Buster, Forbidden, and Raider, dubbing the suits as the Dagger class.

Ezaria tinged with anger at the very thought of Gundam. Her son was a pilot of one of those monstrosities that caused countless casualties in the war. Though it seemed a neccessity at the time, when peace between the two factions came, Ezaria personally headed a decree that the 4 remaining Gundams under Zaft power, the Buster, Freedom, Justice and Duel, be destroyed. The events were publically broadcasted all over the Plants and Earth as a sign of goodwill. For a while after that, her son seemingly showed resentment and mild bitterness at the Duel's destruction, which he hid well, but not well enough from his mother. After a reconciliation, the 2 went back on good terms with each other. Yzak's good humour would also heighten more because a few weeks later, he would bump into Kirliani and ultimately fall in love with her. The same could be said of the girl towards him, and Ezaria could see nothing but good things in the future for them both, regardless how negotiations go.

They both stopped in front of a door that opened onto Ezaria's quarters.

"I guess this is where I say goodbye" Kirliani began,"I'm needed at the bridge and I have to file in, sigh, paperwork, later mom."

"Go get'em dear" the older woman replied, amused as Kirliani turned and kicked off the wall, giving her extra momentum as she darted towards the bridge.

"Count on it." She replied smiling and giving a 'V' sign to Ezaria.

As Kirliani disappeared around a corner, Ezaria entered her room and the first thing she did after the door mechanically slid shut behind her, was take off her heels and plop down exhausted on the bed.

"Groan, dare I say it, I'm getting to old for this..."

The doors to the bridge mechanically slid open as Kirliani went past it and saluted to the captain.

"Lt. Kirliani Signit reporting, sir" She said in a more military and serious tone in contrast to her earlier self.

"At ease, Lt." The captain, a balding man with a goatee by the name of Kazro, said as he returned the salute. "I wanted to personally thank you for the good job your squad has been doing in protecting Lady Joule."

"It was nothing, sir" the rather confused girl replied. She clearly wasn't expecting this. "But actually, there really was nothing to protect her from, Captain."

"I beg to differ, many terrorists that are against our kind are still at large. Might I remind you of the tragedy that befell one of our Diplomats 6 months ago." He said, referring to an incident in which a group of Dinns safeguarding a Mr. Laurimer Powell, were shot down by a group of Ginns in an ambush and destroyed the diplomats shuttle immediately after that. It was reported that the battle merely lasted 2 minutes and 37 seconds. Most people say that it would be more appropriate, to call it a slaughter. It was later revealed that the Ginns were operated by members of the anti coordinator group, the Blue Cosmos.

"I understand, sir."

"I know you do" Captain Kazro replied, "Which is why, as of 5 days from today, you are up for a promotion."

"A promotion?" Kirliani replied, putting away her initial idea of screaming it out loudly in disbelief.

"Thats right," The captain replied with a proud tone. "You will be a member of the new Anti-Terrorism unit organized just a few weeks ago, the Zaft universal Guardians of Unity"

"The very same elite group, Zu-Gu unit?" the stunned soldier said calmly but couldn't help screaming it out in her head. It was a newly formed group of selected elite soldiers wth the purpose of eliminating terrorist activities. Something like this would mean a very major step in her career. She could just imagine the look on Yzaks face when she tells him.

'But the again,' she thought, 'How will he take it? Yzak's a tough one to read at times...'

"Prescisely" The captain replied. He the brought up a salute "Do us proud, Lt. Signit, you are dismissed."

"Thank you sir" She said rather distracted while saluting before turning towards the door once again. It slid open mechanically and she made her way through the corridors towards her room. Mixed emotions overrun her head. It was only halfway to her quarters that she stopped on her tracks, hovering in the middle of the corridor, that she decided.

"Yzak's going to have to live with this then. If we're going to get married, he may as well respect my decisions." She announced to herself, arms folded and eyes closed, with an air of finality. "He should know what it means to be a soldier."

With that, she strolled to her room much more at ease, and prepared for the fire fight with her fiancee upon arriving at the Plants.

The Helix peacefully navagated the stars as it made its way homeward bound to the Plants. Its crew at ease and seemed to be enjoying the voyage for all its worth. Unbeknownst to the crew, this would be short lived.

"Captain, debris field up ahead." Announced one of the officers monitoring the radars. "What are your orders?"

"We'll push through it. Doesn't seem to be very thick whatsoever."

"Affirmative"

"Take her slow, we are in no hurry"

The ship began to enter the debris field, the occassional asteroid and debris comprising it bouncing off it's armor, sending thumps echoing throughout the ship. The debris was comprised mainly of wrecked machines from the past war. This was only one of many fields spread out between Earth and the Plants. It was a grim reminder of the conflict of the past. Within the cold, scraps of machines, were soldiers, everyday normal people, unfortunate enough to befall the darkside of fate, that now rested here for all eternity.

"Check out all those mobile suits." said a member of the bridge crew manning the radar to his comrade on communications, looking at something in the distance.

Ginns, Astrays, Daggers, Mobius' and other such suits, left lifeless and torn to pieces, to forever float in the void of space.

"Yeah, such a waste" The other began, looking intently as well. "No use dabbling in the past, lets just get out of- Wait a minute."

"what is it?"

"I thought I saw something move out there."

"Nonsense, i wouldve seen it in the radar- What the Hell!?" He cut himself short when he turned his attention back to his console. He immediately got the captains attention.

"Whats all the ruckus about?" Kazro began sternly, noticing the 2.

"Sir, the radars being jammed by an unknown transmission"

"What? are you sure it isnt produced by the field?"

"Can't tell sir, but best not jump to conclusions"

"There it is again!" the communications officer announced, pointing outside. "Sir, Something is definitely out there!"

"There's nothing I can't see, It must be just the shimmer of the stars" replied the captain looking outside. "All of you, you're all acting too jumpy, it's just the stress of the voyage, maintain speed. Lets get out of here."

Outside however, 8 mobile suits slowly darted from scrap to scrap, large enough to hide themselves, while moving closer to the ship.

"Radar Scrambler seems to be doing it's job well, the ship has yet to detect us." said a pilot, operating his console

"Remember, we mustn't give them enough time to deploy their suits, should we mobilize Jaquin?"

"Copy that Kakuji, prepare to engage boys, saddle up." the man named Jaquin replied as his Dagger seis began to come to life from it's hiding place and charged.

( A/N: Mobile suit encyclopedia activated....

Codename: Dagger Seis

Unit type: Attack purpose mobile suit

Equipment: Variable purpose vernier system, equipped in backpack; Psycommu, wireguided frame in left forearm.

Fixed Armaments: Beam gun nozzlex5, 1 mounted in each finger of left hand; Beam saberx2, stored in backpack; 6 -tube missile systemx2, 1 mounted on each lower leg; Beam Lancex1, mounted in left forearm; High pressure Beam riflex1, hand held in use.

Optional Armaments: Anti-Beam shieldx1, mounted on either forearm; Long ranged heavy beam launcherx1, hand held in use; Anti-ship beam swordx1, handheld in use, stored in backpack.

.............End encyclopedia)

"Hayden, Tatski, I'll leave long range artillery bombardment to you guys" Jaquin said, letting out orders to his team.

"Got it."

"Was gonna do it anyway."

"Glad to hear it, Kakuji, Domeq, Guevarra, Get in close, rip that ship to shreds."

"Sir!"

"Oh I've been waiting for this"

"Affirmative, man, bout damn time too"

"You guys are the most undisciplined unit I was ever assigned to..." An exasperated Jaquin replied. "Vajra, Salazar, you guys are with me, and don't bother replying!"

"Aw c'mon major, we follow no real system in our affiliation." Vajra replied

"Oh shut up..." Jaquin said in finality. "Move out!!"

At that moment, all 8 of the Dagger Seis' began to mobilize at the Helix. The two armed with beam launchers whipped out the heavy artillery, holding the weapon in both hands, and unloaded at various parts of the Nazca Class ship. Meanwhile, the 6 other suits dispersed from their formation and proceeded at different directions towards the ship. Jaquin's group had began firing on the idle vulcan turrets and cannons while Kakuji's group loomed in closer, pulling out their anti-ship beam swords. Just then, the Helix's vulcans began coming to life, sending a wave of ammunition at them. Seeing this the 3 suits raised their shields and regrouped back to Jaquin's point.

"Looks like we've underestimated their reaction time" Kakuji said as a barrage of bullets ricocheted off his shield. He put away his Anti-ship sword, and pulled out a high pressure beam rifle, blasting away at the ship while darting here and there.

"Don't worry, we'll soften her up from here" Jaquin directed the team. "Hayden, Tatski, maintain your bombardment."

Red lights began blaring within the bridge as the assaults made impacts on the ship, drawing small explosions and smoke.

Shocked at first, the captain suddenly snapped back to his senses at the jeering of the crewmembers.

"Sir, we've activated the picus vulcans, your orders?"

"Set the entire ship on level 10 red alert! Get our suits mobilized immediately!"

"Sir!" the officer then addressed the ship intercom "Signit Team and Dayne Team, prepare to mobilize, enemy confirmed as 8 unknown suits, good luck to all of you!"

Kirliani darted out of her room as the message ended and joined a group of pilots hurrying towards the hangar. This was just great, they had to be attacked so close to going home. Then again, she did want some action. Putting the thoughts aside and focused at the task at hand, she began to run into members of her squad, dashing towards the hangar, and organized her team before they even arrived. Dayne seemed to be doing the same thing, she noticed.

"Lt." said one of her teammates during the run, "How're we going to fight off these mystery suits?"

"Yeah" chimed another.

"Easy" she replied. "We fight and beat them anyway."

"Works for me"

The message had just ended in the Hangar as the engineers scrambled to the suits, preparing for launch. The pilots bursted in from the corridors and began to float to their respective suits. Kirliani climbed in the hatch of her Guaiz-R as the first suit to deploy, a Blaze Zaku Phantom belonging to Dayne, was being loaded onto the catapult.

"All systems green, weapons ammunition fully loaded, beam armaments at 100, power 100" she said to herself as she prepared her OS for space combat. Now for those of you who aren't familiar, the Guaiz-R is a modified Guaiz with hip mounted retractable rail cannons. Kirliani was fortunate enough to enlist the utility of one when she was assigned to her team a few months ago, and it would once again prove it's worth to her in the battlefield.

"Lt. Signit" a voice in the intercom said as the 4th suit, a Ginn, was deployed, "your suit is next for deployment, good luck, over."

"Copy that, thanks" Kirliani said as the hatch of her Guaiz-R sealed with a hissing airtight lock. She placed on her helmet and said a small prayer as her suit was loaded onto the catapult track.

"Kirliani Signit, Guaiz-R, Launch!!"

At that moment, a magnetic force threw out her suit into the now blazing battlefield. Only a few seconds into it, her suit detected a missile lock on her and she immediately raised her beam rifle and fire at the oncoming missiles, destroying most of them while dodging the rest. She took a few seconds and began to assess the situation. Dayne was fending off two enemy suits with his Blaze Zaku Phantom, and seemed to be looking for the source of the long-range bombardment that continued on the ship. He blasted away with seemingly endless volleys of his missiles at the two Dagger Seis' being nicely complimented with assaults from his beam rifle. On the other hand, the two Daggers seemed to be handling alright as well, managing to avoid the full force of Dayne's suit, while countering with their own attacks. Not far from that, a Ginn from her own squad was going mano a mano with one of the enemy, flying and darting around the ship as they fired at each other. The Ginn was equipped with a high velocity beam cannon which made up for it's lack off offensive power against the Dagger Seis, and they were both at an almost even footing, aside from the fact that the Dagger Seis was faster. Next, she noticed a Zaku Warrior, darting all over the hull of the ship, as it blasted away with it's assault rifle in one hand and a bazooka in the other. It was compensating for the lost cannons of the Helix on the initial strike of the enemy. Kirliani looked all over for the fourth deployed suit, and crestfallenly concluded that it must've already been shot down. Suddenly, a ping on the console brought her back to reality.

"I got you!" Roared Kakuji as he fired off his beam rifle at the idle Guaiz-R. The suit had begun moving however and the beams missed completely. Grunting in dissaproval, he began pursuing the suit, beam rifle continuosly cracking off shots.

Kirliani raised her own beam rifle and began blasting away at Kakuji while simultaneously dodging his shots and boosting backwards. The Dagger Seis gracefully dodged each shot and continued to grow closer to the Guaiz-R.

'Damn it, he's fast...' She thought while deploying her retractable rail cannons and blasted away at the enemy. Suddenly, an alert on her console warned her she was locked onto by missiles. "Oh crap!" She yelled out loud in anger within her suit. They were coming, too fast and too close to dodge or destroy every single one herself, not to mention the pressure placed on her by the Dagger Seis chasing her. Before anything else happened, a barrage of machine gun fire blasted at the hostile missiles, destroying them in a chain reaction.

"Lt., growing sloppy?" Began a voice on the radio, it was from the C-Gue that fired at the missiles and saved her, a member of her squad "Need a hand?"

It seemed as though 3 other suits from the helix have joined the fray as she was fighting.

"What do you think, numb nuts?" Kirliani countered hotly, using her shield to block an oncoming shot from Kakuji. Then with a change in tone "Thanks, now let's take these punks down, Blake!"

"You got it!" Blake replied with enthusiasm.

Kirliani managed to shake off Kakuji's Dagger Seis and began to fire on it along with Blake's suit. She was unloading at it with her rail cannons and beam rifle while Blake sent a barrage of shells from his assault machine gun and shield mounted gatling gun. Kakuji managed to keep up with the double team assaults of the two coordinators, using his Anti-Beam shield to the highest extent, and was now being battered by the shell-based artillery of the 2 suits.

"Grr, so be it, you're both going down!" He yelled in anger at the C-Gue and Guaiz-R

Elsewhere in the battlefield, Jaquin had been loosing his patience. He had been fighting this mere Ginn armed with only a High Velocity beam cannon for a while now and he has yet to destroy it.

"Playtime is over" he said as he flicked a few switches, "Engaging Psycommu system, deploy!"

The left forearm of Jaquin's suit secretly detached itself from the main body as the Ginn was dodging beam fire and began flying around on it's own. Actually, the left forearm of the Dagger Seis could be detached from it's place remotely controlled via a very thin and very long link cable, connecting it to the body. The arm positioned itself Behind the Ginn and began firing, while the main body also attacked with it's beam rifle, sandwiching the Ginn in Beam assaults.

The Ginn pilot maneuvered as fast as he could, but to no avail. His legs and verniers were ripped apart with beam fire from in front and behind. Then, the Dagger Seis Ignited the Beam Lance on its remote arm and charged at the Ginn, stabbing it in the back while Jaquin took out a beam saber and stabbed it in the cockpit area, incinerating the Ginn pilot. He dislodged his stabs and reatatched the remote arm, flying off, in search of new prey. The Ginn fluctuated for a few moments before erupting in a ball of flame. He looked around at the odds his team was fighting and noticed another suit coming out of the catapult.

"Oh no you don't!" He said, deploying his missiles at the oncoming Zaku Warrior, destroying it just as it exited the catapult. As he was deciding on his next move, machine gun shots narrowly missed his suit. Pulling up his shield, Jaquin employed evasive maneuvers and began firing at the Zaku Warrior stationed on top of the hull of the ship with his beam rifle. The Zaku strafed here and there across the top of the ship, dodging the blasts at the ships expense and catching some of the beams with his shoulder mounted shield. It retaliated by blasting away simultaneously with it's bazooka and assault machine gun. As they exchanged fire he noticed that the catapult was preparing another launch. Jaquin hurriedly contacted one of the longe range assault Dagger Sies' of his team.

"Hayden, Take out the Hangar, now!" he commanded as he managed to take a clean shot at the Zaku Warrior, blasting off it's shield.

"On it!" Hayden replied, twisting the torso of his suit to aim the massive beam launcher at the catapult. Pulling the trigger on it, the weapon sent a huge burst of plasma towards the catapult. It first destroyed a Ginn being deployed and then slamming at the inner part of the catapult, frying the magnetic field they used to propel the suits, rendering it useless. A few volleys later along with the other long ranged Dagger Sies, the hangar opening was up in smoke as small explosions rocked it's insides, shaking the entire ship and killing off some engineers and remaining pilots. The hangar was then evacuated immediately, wounded and injured personnel dashing towards the corridors as the hangar was sealed off.

Inside the bridge, all hell was breaking loose as the captain tried to keep up with the situation and the crew tried to keep up with the captain's orders. Ezaria Joule had joined the crew on the bridge some time ago and supervised the battle.

"How's that S.O.S. coming along?" she inquired the communications officer.

"Having difficulty ma'am, the debris is obstructing the transmission"

"Well keep at it! if this battle continues as it is, we'll take a turn for the worst."

Only one conclusion could be set in her mind, this must be none other than a Blue Cosmos ambush. But doubt seemed to settle in as questions rose at how they could've managed to obtain such powerful suits not registered in the intelligence of Orb, the Alliance, or Zaft. The possibilities ran through her mind as the communications officer let out an announcement of success.

"I got it through" he began and turned back to his work "This is the Helix, we are currently under assault and require back up, I repeat, we are on our last legs, over"

Silent hope ran across the bridge as everyone seemed to listen intently for a reply. Then, it came blaring through the intercom, static lacing the communication.

"This is the Gibraltar, We read you loud and clear Helix, we are nearby your location, expect back up in 15 minutes, over"

"Copy that, Gibraltar"

"The Gibraltar." Ezaria said under her breath as a small smile lit up in her face, that ship was assigned to none other, but her son, "Yzak..."

Back outside, Dayne had managed to eliminate one of the Dagger Sies's, over powering it with a massive missile assault and now focused it's attention to his one remaining opponent. Blake and Kirliani had the upper hand on Kakuji as they managed to shatter his suit. Kakuji had then deployed his remoate left arm and began to multitask on his two opponents. the arm was focusing on Kirliani's Guaiz-R while Kakuji kept the C-Gue busy with his beam rifle.

"Tricky little bastard..." Blake said as he defended himself with his shield and blasted away with his machine gun.

He let loose a quick spray, hitting the Dagger Sies, going through one of it's legs which erupted in a small explosion. He pulled the trigger again, hoping to finish off the stunned enemy, but the counter for it's ammo read zero. Tossing the gun aside, he aimed with his gatling gun and let loose at the Dagger Sies too late as it had already regained balance and darted here and there, dodging the shots. Kakuji raised his beam rifle in front of him and prepared to fire when a blast from the Guaiz-R's rail cannons bore a hole through it's side, making the rifle explode.

"Blake!" came a transmission from Kirliani, "Finish him!"

Seeing his opportunity, Blake took out his C-Gue's heavy sword, and rushed headlong towards the Dagger Sies.

"Die!!!" Blake roared as he raised the weapon, closing in on Kakuji.

In a flash, Kakuji reached for the anti-ship beam sword mounted on the back of the Dagger Sies and brought it down on the C-Gue before it even got close, cutting the heavy sword in two and splitting the C-Gue's Body in half, killing Blake instantly. The pieces fluctuated a bit before they finally exploded. Kirliani stared wide-eyed in disbelief.

"BLLAAAKKKEEE!!!!" She cried out, tears coming from her eyes as she wept for her friend. Fighting like a woman possessed, she narrowed down on the remote arm of the Dagger Sies as it prepared to fire on her. Blasting upon it first with her rail cannons, it exploded and she diverted her attention on Kakuji's mangled suit, firing away. She wasn't faring any better, suffering various armor damages, but still managing to keep the Guaiz-R in one piece.

The Dagger Seis, despite it's condition, was still a very fast mobile suit. Kakuji managed to dodge most of the attacks, avoiding serious damage, as he closed in on the Guaiz-R, his anti-ship beam sword screaming for blood. Seeing the enemy near melee range, Kirliani activated the beam claws on her suit, putting her beam rifle aside, and quickly pulling out a beam saber as well.

Kakuji heaved the weapon as it swung a horizontal slash at the Guaiz-R. Kirliani brought her shield up and managed to boost backwards at the nick of time, the attack leaving a long deep graze on the shield. Few more swings, and Kakuji managed to shatter the shield.

'Amazing' Kirliani thought as she began to evade and parry oncoming slashes. 'That weapon is huge, but the suit can still maintain it's balance and attack as if it were an ordinary beam saber'

"Well that won't stop me!" She said out loud in her suit.

As the Dagger Seis brought down the Anti ship sword in a vertical slash. Kirliani stopped it with both her beam claws and beam saber, using her verniers to add to the force. Just as she planned, her tactic managed to repel the sword and throwing Kakuji back.

"This is for Blake!" she roared as she deployed the rail cannons and unloaded in near point blank ranges at the enemy.

The shots pierced through the suit, one of which, blasted through the torso, above the cockpit.

"No!!!" Kakuji managed to yell before his suit erupted in a ball of flame seconds later, killing him. The force of the explosion pushed the Guaiz-R backwards, and Kirliani flew off, pushing aside her sadness for the moment and searched for more hostile elements.

Jaquin had just managed to eliminate the Zaku Warrior on the ship when Dayne snuck up to him from behind, having destroyed the last of his opponents, and blasted his suit with the assault machine gun of his Blaze Zaku Phantom. Swinging around in the nick of time, Jaquin managed to block the attack with his shield, though catching a few blasts on his suit. He let out a small grin in the Dagger Seis as he deployed the remote arm. If he kept near the ship, the Zaku Phantom would avoid using it's multitude of missiles. Using the same tactic he used with the Ginn, the remote arm began firing on the Zaku from behind while he fired at it with his beam rifle in front.

Dayne simply pivoted on his position, catching both the attacks on his twin shoulder mounted shields. He thrusted upwards as more beam shots charged at his suit, each one missing. The remote arm came to life once more and began to hotly pursue the Zaku Phantom with the Dagger Seis trailing at a distance behind it. Seeing his chance, Dayne swung to a hard left, facing towards the side of the Dagger Sies, placing the Helix out of his range of fire. He was about to blast away with his missiles when another enemy suit blasted at it with it's beam rifle. He successfully evaded but it ended up ruining his own shot.

"Domecq!" Jaquin began on his intercom, "Let's finish this pest!"

"Copy that, I hope he likes the accommodations in hell." His subordinate replied, deploying his own remote arm.

The two Daggers then scattered and attacked the Zaku Phantom with Beam assaults from their remote weapons and beam rifles. Avoiding beams from every direction, Dayne pushed the agility of the graceful suit to the limit. Though his shields were preventing major damage, the attacks were coming too fast and his coordinator rection time could only do so much. Thinking fast, he fired his missiles that were then destroyed by the beams, creating a wall made of the explosions. Utilizing the distraction, he shook off his 2 pursuers and blasted away his missiles at Domeq.

"I won't make it that easy for you!" Domeq roared as he blasted away at the missiles, destroying them with the remote arms 5 beam guns. Suddenly, 2 bright spinning objects came from nowhere. Both of which sliced the wire connecting the remote forearm to the body in four, disabling the weapon. "What the fuck!?"

Dayne caught both of his beam tomahawks, one in each hand as he deployed more missiles at Jaquin, who had just shattered his shield from the impact of several warheads.

"I hope I'm not too much for them" Dayne said in his cockpit as he threw his beam tomahawks once more, this time at Jaquin while defending from Domeq's beams, who was also just pulling out his anti ship beam sword.

All this time, Kirliani's Guaiz-R was struggling as it tried to battle another Dagger Seis on it's own. It had managed to blast off her shield along with the forearm attached to it, and now she was naked to the beam fire, relying on her battered armor. Vajra maximized the effectiveness of his remote arm. Every time he shot with his beam rifle, the beam guns on the arm would target and fire at the Guaiz-R as it dodged, firing from different random places towards the suit. Continuing the process and not letting Kirliani to retaliate much, he eventually scored.

"AAAHH!!" Kirliani screamed in her suit as it rocked from a head on beam shot to her wing-like vernier. The result was it was near scrapped and below 50 capacity. She darted sideways at that moment, getting a chance to blast away with her rail cannons.

Vajra merely raised his shield, absorbing most of the shots while dodging the rest.

"That's it!" Kirliani said in success as she formulated a tactic in her head. "That suit disengaged its left arm, leaving only the right to hold both the shield and beam rifle. If I can pin it's main body down, I can take out it's left arm, and it will be all down hill from there."

The Guaiz-R continued raining shells with it's rail cannons at the Dagger Seis. The remote arm then charged at her, blasting away with it's beam guns before igniting the beam lance. Dodging back fast enough to save the body but not her rifle, she threw away the rifle before it exploded unto her. Pulling out her beam saber to replace the gun and activating the beam claws. She parried and slashed at the forearm's attack. The distraction gave the Dagger Seis enough time to continue firing it's beam rifle, chancing a few shots, destroying her lower leg. She darted away once more and evaded the rest, firing from a distance. These suit's were fast AND good.

"Okay then, one more time" She said while charging back to the Dagger Seis to try her tactic again.

In the distance, Hayden and Tatski continued their bombardment of the ship at a distance.

"Her armor won't last for long, man." Hayden said to his comrade, firing at the ship. "Let's focus our shots on one spot"

"How about no" Tatski replied stoically

"Why the hell not?" countered his irritated comrade.

"Because this is just more fun."

"Good enough for me."

"Hmm…" Tatski began "What's this coming behind me so fas-"

Suddenly, a huge beam axe came crashing down from behind one of the Dagger Seis', slashing it up to the middle of the torso before it exploded.

"The Hell was-!?"

Hayden turned around to see what had attacked his comrade, twisting the huge beam launcher along with him to aim at the attacker. He got a glimpse of a Slash Zaku Phantom before a huge beam shot tore through his torso, killing him instantly before his suit exploded.

"Detecting 3 remaining hostile suits and only 2 remaining friendly suits." Dearka announced, scanning the area with his Gunner Zaku Phantom. "The Helix seems to be suffering major damages at various parts, let's bring on the cavalry, shall we?"

But Yzak had been long gone when he heard him say only two zaft suits were remaining. His Slash Zaku Phantom already darting around, searching for a Guaiz-R. His ship, the Gibraltar, was having difficulty navigating the debris field when he and Dearka launched in their Zaku Phantoms and headed here on their own as an advanced relief group.

Kirliani's suit now floated near lifelessly as it had taken major damages. It had lost most of it's legs, reducing them to near stumps above the knee, blasted off her main verniers completely, and destroyed one of her beam claws while only succeeding in destroying the left arm and shield of the Dagger Seis.

Vajra loomed menacingly in the distance, beam saber drawn. He sized up his opponent before charging with the saber, intent on destroying the helpless Guaiz.

'Is this it…?' Kirliani thought to herself as she fired her rail cannons, missing with each shot, unable to narrow down the swift suit. "YZAK!!!!" she finally screamed in fear of her impending death as the Dagger Seis neared melee range, too scared to do anything else but close her eyes. Then nothing, she was pretty sure the saber would've crashed on her by now. She slowly opened her eyes to see the saber shining brightly in front of her, being stopped by the business end of a massive beam axe, a big smile began to grow on her face as she dared hope whose suit it was.

"You called?" rang the familiar face on her screen, with his trademark grin. "Don't just sit there, the Helix needs defenses, can you get back?"

"Yes, thanks" she said in a relieved tone.

"Glad to have" he said in a softer smile, throwing off the Dagger Sies from their beam lock. "Now go!"

The Guaiz-R slowly made it's way back to the ship as Yzak began firing hundreds of beam blasts with his beam gatling guns, amazingly keeping up with the Dagger's powerful speed.

"What's your business with the ship!?" Yzak commanded

"Isn't it obvious?" Vajra replied defiantly, firing back with his beam rifle.

END CHAPTER….

A/N: Please, R&R, Domo Arrigatto


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